Security News > 2022 > October > US Govt: Hackers stole data from US defense org using new malware

The U.S. Government today released an alert about state-backed hackers using a custom 'CovalentStealer' malware and the Impacket framework to steal sensitive data from a U.S. organization in the Defense Industrial Base sector.

The hackers combined custom malware called CovalentStealer, the open-source Impacket collection of Python classes, the HyperBro remote access trojan, and well over a dozen ChinaChopper webshell samples.

CVE-2021-26855 is a server-side request forgery vulnerability in Exchange that allows sending arbitrary HTTP requests and authenticating as the Exchange server.

While the initial access vector is unknown, the current advisory notes that the hackers gained access to the organization's Exchange Server in mid-January 2022.

"These files were split into approximately 3MB chunks located on the Microsoft Exchange server within the CU2hedebug directory" - joint report from CISA, FBI, and NSA. At the beginning of March, the hackers exploited the ProxyLogon vulnerabilities to install no less than 17 China Chopper webshells on the Exchange Server.

CISA shares technical details for the HyperBro RAT in distinct report, saying that the capabilities of the malware include uploading and downloading files to and from the system, logging keystrokes, executing commands on the infected host, and bypassing User Account Control protection to run with full admin privileges.

News URL

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/us-govt-hackers-stole-data-from-us-defense-org-using-new-malware/